Friday, October 29, 2010

Well, I am getting new comics but they will be picked up and reviewed starting next Wednesday. I'm not picking up new comics this week because Saturday is Detroit Fanfare where I will be meeting and hopefully getting an autograph and picture with Stan "The Man" Lee!
I'll be posting my swag and pictures here and on my Facebook page.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The titles of this issue is Dark City and it focuses on Mister Dark, the new villain introduced after the Great War and the Fall of Fabletown. He's taken over the spot of Fabletown and is slowly building his own kingdom in it's place.
We learn a little more about him such as he personifies fear. A very interesting concept. He's able to induce anyone's fear upon them regardless what it is.
We also learn more about his teeth deal. What happens it when he eats the teeth of someone they become little more than zombie slaves to him. He calls them 'witherlings' and while they appear mindless and rotting he apparently hears their thoughts and holds conversations with them as a master would with his slaves.
He chooses some very interesting victims. They are all people that have come into some kind of contact with the Fables. An example it Molly Greenbaum who had a one night stand with Prince Charming that was shown briefly in the very first few issues of the series! The question is why is he picking these specific people?
Another part of this issue involves Bigby's father, the North Wind and his attempt at talking Mister Dark into leaving the mundy world for good. He tells Mister Dark of the duel with Bellflower (formerly Totenkinder) which seems to excite Mister Dark. The most interesting bit here is North Wind using Mister Dark's real name: Dullahan.
Finally, the kids of Snow and Bigby are given some screen time. They are being taught to embrace their North Wind heritage and North Wind himself learns of the existence of Ghost.
Overall, a very well done issue and a perfect representation of 'the calm before the storm' that well will see next month in FABLES #100!

DEADPOOL #28
Words: Daniel Way
Pictures: Carlo Barberi

Deadpool continues his quest to be a hero. He teams up with who he thinks is Moon Knight, Black Widow and Steve Rogers, who loves to beat him up.
It turns out these are simply clones created by Doctor Bong who wants to have Deadpool on his team of clones, presumably to rule the world (Doctor Bong is a little out of touch and kind of weird)
Anyway, the REAL Steve Rogers shows up and fun ensues.
I'm getting the feeling Way doesn't know what he's doing with this title anymore. This "Deadpool wants to be a hero" things has been done for a long time out and he's failed at it so many times you'd think he's just give up on it. Or, at least, i wish he would.
Perhaps with all the other Deadpool books running currently Way doesn't have much room to play in...no matter the reason this series is beginning to suffer from lack of direction and plain fun
I still like the art though!

This begins the all-new ongoing series starring the legendary Lady Death who made her first appearance way back in 1991's Evil Ernie: Youth Gone Wild miniseries which I recently reviewed here.
She is no longer with the Chaos! Cosmos and Evil Ernie and after more than a few failed or less than exciting runs with CrossGen and Avatar Comics she lands at Boundless and begins anew.
The story begins with Lady Death's kingdom under siege by someone calling herself Death Queen. She seems hellbent on killing everyone in Lady Death's realm and even wears a mask of Death's face in an evil grin.
After destroying Lady Death's kingdom, killing much of her army she confronts the Diva of Death herself and seemingly defeats her!
It's an interesting take on Lady Death but I have to admit, I miss the good old days when Lady Death could take on all of Heaven and Hell and come out on top. But, after reading this free preview I have to admit...I'm more than a little interested in where this is going to go. I have to figure out if I want to grab it monthly or pick up the trades. But anyone interested in Lady Death should run to their local comics shop and pick up this free issue!

More old school Marvel style action continues! This issue things begin to settle down after the last two issues of Thor Vs. Mister Hyde. We begin with Thor having a dream about his arrival on Earth. We begin to learn more about why he's there, Odin wishes to teach him a lesson of some sort. Thanks to Loki's involvement he is granted a hasty vision before Jane walks in.
The next day Jane is suspended from her job at the museum and to put her mind at ease she decides to take Thor shopping to get him more...normal clothing.
While all this is going on we meet Hank Pym, Ant-Man/Giant Man, and his wife Janet, The Wasp, as Pym learns of the death of his long time friend at the hands of Hyde. He decides to try to bring his friends killer to justice.
At the worst possible moment, Thor begins to see Loki's vision but it blurs his perspective and he begins to see Asgardian concepts on earth. He sees Giant Man as a Frost Giant and a fun little fight ensues.
This series continues to be a highly entertaining series that should be read by everyone. It's nice, back to basics, story telling and light hearted art that LOOKS like comic book art. I can't recommend this enough!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Origin Of The Species, Part 4! Spider-Man, thinking the baby he tried so hard to save is dead, goes on a rampage through New York City looking for the person or persons responsible for it. All the third and forth string villains are running for their lives as Sidey takes out The Spot, El Diablo, Screwball, Electro, The Enforcers and more!
Meanwhile we have a shot of Harry holding some vials of the Green Goblin formula and looking at it as if thinking about taking it!
Mary Jane, Carlie Cooper and Lily Hollister try to keep things together while being stalked by Tombstone!
And Doc Ock gets VERY close to getting the baby, and finally revealing that he hopes the baby's blood will be enough to heal his beaten and withered body, only to have the baby taken from his man the Chameleon by none other than...The Lizard!
All out action continues in this installment of one of Brand New Day's more exciting stories! If there is one complaint it's some of the art. While I like it in general, there are some panels where Spider-Man look kind of chunky and it does tend to distract from the flow of it, as a long time reader would tell you a fat Spider-Man generally means a fake Spider-Man. It's tradition. Not saying that's the case here it's just how Spidey is being drawn.

It really begins to hit the fan in this issue! We have betrayals, not the bad kind though!
The Cancerverse version of Scarlet Witch turns on her compatriots to help stop the evil Captain Marvel from destroying our Marvel Universe. She is destroyed for doing so but not before she transports Thanos and the Guardians to the place where the Cancerverse began.
Nova tries to convince the remaining defenders to help aid the Guardians but they would rather stay on the front line and help the Abstracts (Galactus and the Celestials for example) fight off the massive Galactus Engine, Medusa remarks that she feels there is something more powerful and BIGGER behind the Galactus Engine...I fear what that can be!
The other betrayal is Thanos. He knows the Cancerverse creatures want him dead and Thanos wants nothing more than to be dead so he offers his life up in exchange for that very same death. Knowing Thanos there is more going on here than we are seeing. In the Cancerverse Death has been destroyed. If Thanos is killed there will it also reset the concept of Death and destroy the Cancer?
So what's this all leading up to? Well, next month is the sixth and final issue of this series that Marvel claims will change the face of the Cosmic branch of the Marvel Universe and from what we're seeing here they aren't kidding!
On the art side, it flows very nicely perhaps the only fall back is Thanos being drawn as a freaking huge Hulk sized guy. But it's easy to follow and very exciting...I almost don't want it to end!

THOR #616
Words: Matt FractionPictures: Pasqual Ferry

The set up continues concerning the after effects of Thor bringing Asgard to Earth. The beings that are seemingly going from realm to realm destroying everything continue their crusade as Thor begins to regret the death of his half brother Loki.It's a set up issue so not much happens, just a story progressing and that's NOT a bad thing.What is kind of a bad thing is the way Ferry is drawing Thor himself. I noticed it a little bit last month but it's really obvious this month. Ferry is drawing Thor to match the no-name actor who's playing him in the upcoming live action movie.I can't say I really like that, it's distracting and takes me out of the story. BUT I really like Thor and I've been reading this series for a few years now so I'm not really willing to drop a good book because the artist wants to ruin the look. But it isn't easy.

Yeah, I wasn't going to buy this on a monthly basis, I loved the first issue but couldn't rationalize having a second ongoing Thor comic. Until I found out the first trade collection will be a smaller than standard size and will only collect the first four issues along with reprints of books I'll have in Essential Thor, Volume 1, overall it didn't make sense.So, for the next few weeks I'll be picking up a new issue of this until I'm caught up.The story is basically out of continuity and kind of resets the Thor story in modern times. It's fun and light hearted and innocent. Fun is what I'm trying to say.Thor is on Midgard and has to learn how our world works while trying to figure out why he's there and how to return to Asgard. It's an all ages book that I still recommend for anyone.With next week's Issue 3 I'll begin to get more into the actual story. For now, just know it's good and fun.

The story begins with Lobo on his way to Earth, a place he really hates. After dealing with an annoying hitchhiker, we find out the reason he's coming to Earth is because he's been hired to arrest someone...that someone turns out to be Deadman.
Lobo has the thinking that Deadman is a really hard dude, someone that might give him a good fight.
Deadman, in the meanwhile, is going on vacation on the suggestion of his therapist. He decides to head to California. Thing it, in order to really enjoy his time there he needs a body. So, we get some body jumping on the part of Deadman, which he enjoys especially when he lands on Bizmo Beach and is set upon by hot chicks.
Then Lobo shows up.
After a quick reference to the Lobo Convention Special he proceeds to search for Deadman and ends up killing 2 people before finding the body Deadman inhabits. Of course this leads to a fight with three steroid freaks with muscles in places most people don't have places. This increases the body county by 3 more.
To stop Lobo's reign of violence, Deadman tries to take him over only to realize Lobo is unlike anyone he's dealt with before. To the point where Deadman starts talking and thinking like Lobo.

We then find out that the person who hired Lobo is Darkseid, ruler of Apokolips. He wants to study Deadman in hopes of figuring out the secret to Anti-Life. After arriving on Apokolips and, by habit, capturing Deadman, Lobo take a Mother Box and is given another offer: Kill himself. Why? Well, another hobby of Darkseid is wanting to become God. Not just A God but THE God. In order to do that he needs to learn all the secrets of Heaven. This is where Lobo comes in having been killed once and ended up in Heaven due to a mistake in paperwork. So Lobo and Deadman hold the secret to Anti-Life AND become a God. Fun times.
With the aid of Lobo's bike they escape and mayhem ensues the way only Lobo can do it!
Eventually, they both end up confronting Darkseid who concedes failure and let's Deadman and Lobo go...but not before he takes the Mother Box away from Lobo who mentions he gave it the 'once over' which turns out to be bad news for Darkseid.

Overall, this was a very entertaining Lobo one shot. It's always best when he's just violent and vulgar, which always betrays the fact he's a very smart man. The art is top notch and very expressive. Fans of Deadman should enjoy this just as much as fans of Lobo. It's also nice to know that Darkseid knows of Lobo and even he treads carefully around him.

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Torment: In 1990 Marvel decided 3 Spider-Man titles weren't enough. We have Amazing, Spectacular and Web of Spider-Man. Marvel decided we needed a series simply called Spider-Man. So, in 1990 Spider-Man #1 was released with one of the most iconic covers to come from the 1990's. The series was written and drawn by Todd McFarlane at first and the premier issue, including all the variations of the cover image, sold over 3 million copies and for a time was the highest selling comic book of all time (that record would be broken the following year when the Chris Claremont/Jim Lee X-Men #1 was released, the combined sales of it's many covers topped 8 million copies. This title is in the Guinness Book of World Records).

But enough about that, what was the first story about? Well, it was called 'Torment' and it was probably one of the darkest Spider-Man stories told at that time, second to maybe Kraven's Last Hunt.
The story begins with Spider-Man doing his thing (wonderfully drawn by Todd McFarlane, when he used to draw comics). He saves a lady, stops a criminal then goes home to Mary Jane (this was before they fixed the whole marriage thing), all seems good in Spidey's life.
Then we cut to the darkness. Inside that darkness is The Lizard, one of Spider-Man's oldest enemies and friends. Only he seems less human, he kills without remorse, starting with rats then quickly moving to humans. During all of this there is a 'Doom, Doom' sound of a drum.As the story moves forward we learn that The Lizard isn't in control of himself. There is a mysterious Voodoo Witch who has taken control of him and wants to use him to destroy The Spider. Apparently she has something of a Kraven obsession. She feels she can succeed where he failed not really knowing that Kraven, on some level, actually did succeed in what he wanted to do.
We also have a small sub-plot with Mary Jane as she tries to keep her mind occupied while Peter is out web slinging by going to party after party and at one point nearly crossing paths with the feral Lizard!The story is very dark and very atmospheric. Spider-Man trying desperately to understand why his friend, Dr. Connors, has become the Lizard again and why the beast is mindlessly killing anyone around it, and trying to kill him. The Voodoo Witch is an interesting character, she has control over The Lizard and her origin is given but while she's an important part of the story she really doesn't get the development she should have gotten. I say she's interesting because she is given a pivotal role in this story but she isn't funny formed.
This is typical Todd McFarlane in these days. While his art was very vibrant and the motions of Spider-Man as he swings through the city are magnificent. His facial expressions though, seemed to have some problems here, in many cases people, like Peter Parker and Mary Jane, looks almost anime-esque in that their eyes were huge and their expressions were not always in the right place. But the action scenes were awesome.

However, on the writing side of it McFarlane isn't as solid. The dialogue is shaky in some spots and, as I said before, the Voodoo Witch isn't a fully formed character, just enough to make her interesting and not completely stick out but not enough to make this story truely great. The story still reads easily enough some 20 years later. I found I had little trouble getting into it again.
Then there are the covers. This is where McFarlane excels like few others. Every cover for this story is awesome. The first issue has become an iconic cover and has been homaged many times (including Marvel Zombies) but ever cover is fun to look at. One of the things that he did on these covers is hide a spider somewhere on the cover. Yeah, I know "it's a Spider-Man comic, of course there's a spider!" Whatever, what I mean is each cover had a unique spider on it hidden somewhere in the image. I think some were covered by the UPC code box because there are a few covers that seemingly don't have the spider on it.

Well, that's about it, Spider-Man: Torment is still a fun read, even with the somewhat weak story. I didn't have a hard time getting back into it and still enjoyed it even with that small drawback.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

I, Were-Terrier! This is it! The Secret Origin of Spot, the Were-Terrier! Learn his mysterious past! His parents killed in a car accident when he was young, he was taken in by his grandfather who was a cartoon voice actor, he voiced a cartoon monkey called Mr. Chimps, as young Scott grew up he became a fan of fantasy, comics, movies anything, much to his grandfather's dismay.
This put a strain on their relationship and shortly after graduation, Scott moved from Portland, OR to Eugene, OR. One night, while walking home, he came across a dog, a terrier, lying dying on the sidewalk, he went to touch it to see if it was dead when a strange feeling came over him.
Later that night, things started getting really hairy.
Yeah, that's his origin, and it actually goes really well with what we learned last month we know about upper and lower spirits and this ties in very nicely with the whole were-anything aspect of this world. It also makes the ending, with his grandfather, pretty funny.
So, yeah, this was a simple origin issue, getting us ready for the upcoming fight with the vampires starting next month. And we see Scott's first meeting with Gwen. Just a nice, relaxing issue.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #21
Words: Tony Bedard
Pictures: Claude St. Aubin

To Be A R.E.B.E.L., Part 1: Seems the Green Lantern Corps doesn't much care for Vril Dox and his L.E.G.I.O.N. They want to shut him down. Unfortunately, for the Corps, Dox has Lobo on his side.
Ever since Lobo gained a Red Lantern Ring (Green Lantern #55) he's been having to deal with the whole Green Lantern world to some extent.
This time he's fighting a Lantern who's whole world is a warrior world, they even look up to Lobo as the perfect fighter. Which makes for an interesting fight, especially once Lobo actually lands a punch (followed by countless more)
We're also learning more about Lobo's interaction with the power of the Rings. His will power seems to be very strong allowing him to destroy nearly anything the Lanterns can construct with their Rings.
Honestly, Lobo is the ONLY reason I'm reason this, I don't know many of the other characters but this book is still fairly new and is written in a way that makes it easy to get into.
The only thing I wonder about is why Lobo didn't have his boots on in this issue?

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About Me

Comic Books. To some a childish thing to read much less collect, but these people are the ill informed who have no understanding of the importance and impact of comic book in our country's history.
I set this blog up to cover my love of comics and share some of what I've learned and maybe even learn something new for myself.
Feedback is ALWAYS welcome!